To Play Or Practice Before A Golf Major?

FOR FANS ONLY - Other Voices

June 13, 2004|By Dave Anderson, New York Times

HARRISON, N.Y. -- To play or to practice -- that is the question.

Whether to compete in a PGA Tour event the week before a major championship, as many of the world's best golfers are doing here at the Buick Classic, or stay on your practice tee at home and prepare for this week's 104th U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, as Tiger Woods is doing.

But almost invisibly, Woods sneaked in a practice round Wednesday at Shinnecock.

Unaccompanied except for a club caddie, a state trooper and a Southampton police officer, Woods played 18 holes on the links-like course in Southampton, N.Y., where the Open will begin Thursday, then he departed for his home in Windermere as quietly as he had arrived.

Woods played a similar practice round at Bethpage Black before the 2002 Open, then returned the next week and won it.

Woods prefers, as Jack Nicklaus did in winning a record 18 majors, to sharpen his game on the practice tee, then arrive at a major rested and ready.

With eight major championships at age 28, that formula has worked well for Woods, the world's No. 1 golfer. Not lately, though.

Woods is 0-7 in majors since he won the Open at Bethpage two years ago.

But as successful overall as Woods has been, his rivals differ on what to do the week before a major.

"It's a personal thing," Phil Mickelson said. "I've found that for me, it's beneficial to play the week before a major. It puts me in a better competitive frame of mind." Before the Buick Classic, Mickelson spent three days playing practice rounds at Shinnecock.

"Whether you play or practice didn't make any difference for me," said Lee Janzen, who won the 1993 Open at Baltusrol in Springfield, N.J., and the 1998 Open at Olympic in San Francisco. "I played the week before Baltusrol and practiced the week before Olympic. The only way to win the Open is shoot the lowest score."